Spoiled Hound

 I know this comes as NO shock to anybody out there that has been following the saga of Leo. I have spoiled him and he is a rotten, though sweet, beast....and I love him.

The latest tale of spoildom is as follows:

We went to the vet last week for another checkup for another round of antibiotics for his ongoing respiratory ailments. At this time, the vet also says that he needs to have another test, that is normally part of the annual checkup process but since he has never really had an annual checkup due to the fact that he has been in there about every 6 weeks with respiratory ailments, he needs to have this test done now. I'm okay with that happening, so they do the test. The next day the vet calls and informs me that Leo has worms (now, these are not worms that can be transferred to humans so no worry if you have been in contact with him and they can only be passed to other dogs through a mother who is infected licking her puppies...or unless a dog eats prey or drinks water that is contaminated with the larva). Well, it turns out that these worms can cause reactions in the airways, leadign to obstruction of breathing and complications can lead to problems such as shortness of breath (check), bronchitis, emphysema, fluid build-up in the lungs (check), and even pneumonia (check). Hmmm, makes me wonder if my baby had been given this test a year or more ago if we would have found this and fixed it then....ah well, hindsight is at least 60/40, right?

So, how does worms lead to a spoiled hound, you may be asking. The vet gave me this powder that I have to put on his food daily for 10 days (normally it is only for 5 days but as we all know, my baby is special) and then I have to dampen the powder and kibble to make it stick. Well, I don't want to just wet it with water because I don't use that fancy dog food that makes its own gravy, therefore, I dampen it with some chicken broth. Leo gets very excited about his dinner now!! Unfortunately, at the meals where he doesn't have to take the medicine and therefore doesn't get the chicken broth, he has started to follow me around and look at me and the food like "where's the broth". Yesterday morning, I admit I threw a little broth on there because I was rushing to get out the door and get him to daycare and knew that he needed to eat so he would have his energy to play. Today, he didn't eat until I sat down at the desk and started working and he realized that it wasn't going to get any better.

Like I said, spoiled.....but loveable.